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Your cat is dumb when it comes to drinking water but this smart fountain could fix that

I know, I know, your cat is the smartest, most wonderful, cute little sociopathic killer in the whole damn world but…cats are not smart when it comes to drinking water.

Cats often suffer from urinary tract infections and other issues because they fail to consume enough water. That and other issues can be painful and, occasionally, fatal. So the arrival of a smart water fountain could be very good news.

The makers of Pura – an Indiegogo project but one that’s looks on course to hit its target – claim it will keep track of your cat’s water-drinking habits. Cleverly, it’s designed to let it drink without wetting its whiskers in the process.

The system uses a combination of the water fountain, a smart phone app and a tracker that you fix to your cat’s collar. If you’ve got one of those free-spirited felines that won’t wear trappings imposed upon it by humanity, you still get a nice water foundation, just without the smart part.

You can also hook up multiple Pura units and sync your cats in-take from across them. The app meanwhile will highlight whether your cat is drinking more or less water than average – both signs of health issues – and offer other suggestions for its well being.

A handy feature for dumb humans like me is that the water changing system on the Pura lights up to tell you when you need to change it. Bacteria can build up pretty quickly and it’s another reason your cat may not drink enough.

Cats really like dry food but that means they need to drink more water to make up for it. While I can’t make a final judgement on Pura until I get my hands on one, it does look like an elegant solution.

You can back the project from $149 to receive one Pura and two ID tags. If you’re a properly crazy cat lady or loopy cat dude, you can shell out $2,400 for the top reward bundle which gets you 24 systems and 48 tags.

The Pura is due to ship in April 2016, but as with any crowdfunding project, do your due diligence before you decide to back it.